The Musings of a Latte Queen: Narratives of Everyday Life

Last night, sprawled across my solid wood king-sized bed, I watched history. My youngest sons and daughters joined me. I longed for my daddy. Senator Barack Obama electrified the audience with what even Pat Buchanan had to admit was the "best and most important political convention speech h had ever heard going back 48 years." Democratic Nominee Obama came out strong and definitely ready to lead. He turned the page of history, he represents what my father and his generation longed for, fought for, and some died for. It was also poignant that this history speech was 45 years to the day that Dr. King marched on Washington and gave his I Have a Dream speech. Senator Obama is the culmination of that dream, and it doesn't end with him. I truly felt the tide turning and the country on the cusp of real change. It was like my girlfriend told me when 2007 turned to 2008, the word was overturn. Like Obama said, "eight is enough" of fear-mongering, illegal wars, ri...

Finally in America! Senator Barack Obama, the son of black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas, has been officially nominated as the Democratic candidate for the Presidency of the United States! Finally, America! The convention, moments ago, after many states went through the ritual of the procedural vote, reached a climax when New Mexico yielded to Illinois and Illinois yielded to New York. This all happened while Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton made her way to the delegation. She spoke and called on the "faith in the party" that they suspend the procedural role call and proclaim "Barack Obama as our candidate and he will be our President!" She moved that Senator Obama be made the candidate through acclamation. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi accepted this move and called for a second, many came from the floor. The verbal vote was matched with over 2/3rds of the delegation casting their votes for Senator Obama. Finally, America! It was a historic moment...

Now the real work begins. I was all set last night to be upset with Senator Hillary Clinton. I, like others, was a bit peeved with her unwillingness to step out of the campaign when it was clear that Senator Barack Obama won. I, like others, was a bit upset by her willingness to incite racism and divide our party. I, like others, was downright mad at her silence about the media attacks on Mrs. Michelle Obama. And I, like others, was bracing for Hillary and her supporters to try to run a coup at the convention. I was pleasantly mistaken. Hillary Clinton took the stage late last evening, it was after 9pm when I looked at my bedroom clock. She thanked her supporters and came out early to say "Obama is my candidate and he must be our President." She was the Hillary I liked back during her run for the U.S. senate as the candidate from New York. She is a brilliant politician and is to be applauded for coming further than any woman has ever coming in reaching for the highest office ...

Saturday, August 23rd, Senator Barack Obama announced he had chosen Senator Joe Biden as his running mate. This announcement was made in Springfield, IL midst scorching heat and an excited crowd. I'm sure some of the Hillary supporters were holding out hope he would pick her so the feminists would be happy. There was speculation that he would someone else around his age. In the end, he made a strategic choice. I mulled over this for the weekend and decided not to jump on the bandwagon of trying to "scoop" the news. The text messages went out around 4am and I received my email at 6:48am, by then, Huffington Post had already reported the news. My decision was to think about it dispassionately and look at it from a longer term view. Of course, I had to hold back while McCain jumped on the choice with his negative advertisements and the CNN pundents were all over this juicy tidbit of potential network ratings. At the local coffee shop, the square was crowded with the u...

It is like dark tanicles that reach up from the ground and grip your heart. It feels like a heat rushing up from the stomach that smothers logic. The pulse races and the breathes are hard to come. The ball of fire in the chest cavity threatens to engulf you and torch all possibility of life. It is fear. Someone told me that bully's use fear to systematically destroy their victims and control their every action. The constant accusations and never-ending verbal jabs are enough to break down the strongest will. It is fear. People become gripped by it, by the unseen what-ifs. Husbands and wives become gripped by it over everything from money to sex to kids, under the constant shadow of the what-ifs. Kids become gripped by it when school starts and they are the new kids on the block. Fear can have a devastating impact on a person, a community, a nation. One of the things I've observed as a member of humanity and as a citizen watching my country turn into a bunch of scaredy ...

I was watching CNN yesterday and they did a brief campaign plane interview with Senator Barack Obama. He is taking his family to visit his elderly grandmother. They really need a vacation after the overly long campaign season and the negative campaigning of both Senator Hillary Clinton and Senator John McCain. Yet, I wonder, if Senator and Mrs. Obama will really be able to just relax given that Hillary Clinton and her "supporters" are planning a coup of the Democratic National Convention. My respect and admiration of the Clintons waned a long time ago. Former President Bill Clinton has not become the elderly statesman that my favorit president, Former President Jimmy Carter, has become. Clinton engaged in race-baiting and the most Rovian-like negative campaigning against Senator Barack Obama that there are many angry feelings still remaining. His office in Harlem doesn't absolve him, neither does the tendency of black people to just shake off the many injustices at ...

The other day I woke up and wondered if God was listening to His daughters. When I turn on the television, I see images of girls scantily clad to appeal to men. I see more and more nudity on network television. I listened to the news reports from around the world report on the rapes of women as an act of war. I read the internet reports about the subprime mortgage crisis that in one community specifically targeted minority women. I thought about the waitresses, the retail clerks, the dental hygienist, the teacher, the secretary, the day care operator, the seamstress, the barista. I thought about the women suffering from AIDS or oppressed by religious dogma. And I wondered if God was listening to His daughters. On the surface it may seem as if God has turned a deaf ear to the many women in marriages that struggle, in prisons for crimes of the men in their lives, the women that watched their sons die on the streets, or the women who hold their baby with ballooning stomachs due to s...

I spent the entire day with my fourteen-year-old son. It was a rare Saturday when I didn't have other obligations that kept me away from my family. My daughters and husband had a lunch date with his sister. The girls were then going to spend the rest of the day with my husband's cousin. It was a treat for the little girls to hang out with their older girl cousins. I ended up with a free day for just my son and I. We went to a back-to-school rally and had a swinging contest. He tried to help me keep my balance on a moder-day teeter totter. We talked to a city council candidate. My son really made me smile in his blue jean shorts (not saggin'!) and nice collar shirt. He confidently shook hands with the adults he met as well as joked around with some of the kids he knew from middle school. We worked the crowd. Our adventure next took us to eat. I was hungry, he wasn't. We both sat down to read a little and catch a breath from the 95-degree heat. My son and I ta...

As if I really needed another reason to hate Wal*Mart, they handed me one. Wal*Mart recently had staff meetings with its Managers (salaried) and Department Supervisors (hourly employees) regarding the November elections. Their message? If you vote Democratic, you will lose your jobs. No, they didn't say that directly, but the implication was all to evident with the tone. Wal*Mart has been ill-treating their employees for years. They do everything from limiting health care to making them work just under 40 hours so they won't have to provide benefits. Wal*Mart is an evil company, a clear representation of the fear-mongering and corporate hijacking of America that has been heightened over the last eight years. I avoid shopping there. I stopped shopping there years ago when I learned of their practices. This was right around the time I knew that the majority of their products are made in China. It was also around the time that I became unemployed and realized Wal*Mart sque...